ALL OVER DESIGN - A repeat pattern that fully covers the field of a rug.

ARABESQUE - A design of intertwining vines, flowers and leaves common to Persian rugs.

ARBRASH - A change in the shade of a color within a rug which usually appears in a horizontal line.

AXMINSTER LOOM - The popular choice for duplicating antique oriental rug designs, particularly Caucasian geometrics, because of the flexibility in color and design.

BACKING/BACKING MATERIAL - To protect the back of hooked rugs, heavy fabric is secured with latex glue. Also called a "scrim cloth."

BANDED BRAID - A style of braided rug in which widebands of solid or variegated braid form a predetermined pattern which is consistent from rug to rug.

BORDER - The design which forms the outside edge of a rug and surrounds the field.

BORDERED RUG - This rug will have a solid or patterned border surrounding a solid color field.

BRAIDED RUG - Yarn or fabric is braided to form a continuous rope or braid which is sewn in a spiral to form a reversible rug.

CARDING/CARDED WOOL - The wool fibers have been opened, cleaned, aligned and formed into a continuous, untwisted strand yarn (called a sliver). Carded wool has a larger and coarser denier than worsted wool.

CARTOON - A colored drawing on graph paper that a weaver follows to craft a rug design.

CARVING - Handheld carving tools are used to accentuate details of hooked, tufted and hand knotted rugs, or to create a 3-D effect on solid color rugs.

CHEMICAL WASH - Produces an overall lustre by reacting to the dye stuffs in the design and by removing short staple yarns from the face of the rug.

CHENILLE BRAID - Fabric is first woven, then cut into strips which are braided.

CHROME DYES - A quality feature because these synthetic dyes use potassium bichromate to form a permanent bond between the dye and the rug's fiber.

CHEVRON - These rugs feature a bold, energetic zig-zag pattern as a major design motif.

CONTROLLED CENTER BRAID - The center of each rug is of a predetermined color and design, while the rest of the rug is variegated.

CORNROWING - This refers to when areas of a rug's foundation show between hooked stitches. The rug design is worked in a crescent pattern rather than straight rows to discourage this.

CROSS-WOVEN - This refers to a rug woven horizontally on a Wilton loom as opposed to vertically, which is more common. This allows more colors to be used, and the rugs are more pliable than standard Wilton weaves.

CUT PILE - After the yarn is pushed through the canvas in the hooking technique, the loops formed by the yarn are but to leave an open pile.

DELUSTERED - A fabric treatment which washes the shine from the yarn, producing a softer overall appearance in an Oriental rug.

DENIER - In reference to yarn size, the lower the denier, the smaller the yarn size; the higher the denier, the larger the yarn size.

DENSITY - This measure of quality in a rug is determined by the amount of yarn and the pile height in a given area of the rug.

DHURRIE - Called a flatwoven rug, dhurries are usually made of cotton or wool in India using the warp-sharing, kelim method.

FIELD - The part of a rug's design surrounded by the border. The field may be solid or contain medallions, or an overall pattern.

FLAT BRAID - A braided rug produced with yarns that are braided around two parallel cores.

FLAT WOVEN - Rugs woven on a loom as opposed to being knotted. They’re typically thinner and lighter than a knotted rug with a tufted pile and have a more casual look that can be used alone or layered.

FOUNDATION - The combination of warps and wefts in the body of a rug.

HAND TUFTED - This hand-crafting technique, in which the pile is inserted into a cloth foundation by hand with a tufting gun, allows the weavers to create intricate, artful floor coverings of extremely high quality.

HOOKED RUG - Yarns are pushed through the back of a canvas cloth and pulled back through to form a design.

IKAT - A resist dyeing process (much like tie-dyeing) which is performed before weaving on the warp fibres, the weft fibres, or in some cases both, creating distinctive, one-of-a-kind patterns.

KELIM - A tapestry-like flatwoven rug.

KNOT - Each yarn is knotted through the back of an Oriental rug. The number of knots per square inch is a quality factor in an Oriental rug.

LATEX - This glue is used to secure a heavy cloth backing to hooked rugs, and to secure face yarns. Latex backed rugs must not be cleaned using petroleum based solvents.

LINE COUNT - The number of horizontal knots in a linear foot.

LOOP HOOKED - A type of hooked rug where the loops formed by the yarn are left uncut.

MACHINE TUFTED - Using an advanced, computer-guided process, the pile is inserted into a foundation at high speed to produce high-quality, extremely uniform rugs.

MACHINE WOVEN - Rugs woven on a machine-guided electric power loom. The resulting rug is very uniform, durable and offers a great value due to reduced hand labor.

MEDALLION - If a design has a large enclosed portion, usually in the center, it is called the medallion. Typical shapes are circles, diamonds, octagons and hexagons.

MODACRYLIC - Acrylic yarns that have been modified for added quality and to resist fire.

PENCILLING - Part of the finishing process, colors are separated to add clarity and straighten lines of color, such as in the border.

PILE - The surface of the rug, it is sometimes called the "nap" or "face."

PILE HEIGHT - The height of the face yarns from the backing to the tip of the piece of yarn.

PLY - One or more yarns are twisted together to form a larger piece of yarn. Ply counts the number of individual yarn pieces comprising the whole.

POLYPROPYLENE - A synthetic fiber that is colorfast, mold and mildew resistant, with excellent wearability and is easily cleaned.

PRINTED RUGS - Solid or multi-colored pile rugs on which a design has been stenciled.

SPANISH NEEDLEPOINT - Woven on computerized looms programmed to imitate the handmade needlepoint rugs of Portugal, these rugs have jute backs and are not reversible. Also called Spanish berber.

SPROUTING - During initial use of a braided rug, excess sprouts of yarn may work their way to the surface of the rug. These sprouts should be clipped off at the base with scissors.

STAPLE - The average length of fibers in a piece of yarn.

SYMMETRIC KNOT - A knot tied over two warps; a Giordes or Turkish knot.

TAPE BRAID - Thirteen two-ply yarns are braided to make a tape, then three tapes are braided around two parallel guide yarns.

TUBULAR BRAID - Yarns are woven in a circular fashion and surround a core of miscellaneous fibers.

TUFTING - A form of hooking, yarns are pushed through the foundation of a rug with an electric tufting gun to form a pattern.